Kerman University of Medical Sciences International Journal of Health Policy and Management 2322-5939 7 4 2018 04 01 The No-Destination Ship of Priority-Setting in Healthcare: A Call for More Democracy 345 348 3424 10.15171/ijhpm.2017.119 EN Brayan V. Seixas School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada Journal Article 2017 08 11 <span class="fontstyle0">In dealing with scarcity of resources within healthcare systems, decision-makers inevitably have to make choices about which services to fund. Setting priorities represents a challenging task that requires systematic, explicit and transparent methodologies with focus on economic efficiency. In addition, the engagement of the general public in the process of decision-making has been regarded as one of the most important aspects of the management of publicly-funded health systems in liberal democracies. In the current essay, we aim to discuss the problematics of public engagement in the process of resource allocation and priority-setting within the context of publiclyfunded health systems. Our central argument is that although there may be a conflict between democratic mechanisms of citizen participation and economic efficiency, in the extra-welfarist sense, expected for/from the system, the solution for this tension does not seem to rely on more or novel authoritative technocratic approaches, but rather on the deepening and betterment of democratic participation.</span> https://www.ijhpm.com/article_3424_b63bf42b9e6f568e87422a6831856b74.pdf